Traditional Serbian society has a strong peasant patriarchal tradition that evolved under Ottoman domination and is still reflected in family and government structures. A distinctive feature is the zadruga, a corporate family group of 100 or more individuals that originally worked the land under the direction of family elders. The zadruga functioned as a rural tradition well into the communist era. The advent of modern public services, however, took a toll on this system. Even as elders lived increasingly longer, younger adults educated in an expanding school system chafed at patriarchal authority. By the 1970s the zadruga system had evolved into a less-onerous system of cooperative extended family groups. Nevertheless, family loyalties continue to play a major role in Serbia, where nepotism in the workplace is a recurring phenomenon.

Daily life and social customs

The cities of Belgrade and Novi Sad offer a cosmopolitan milieu, and the people there frequent cafés and pubs, take their meals late (in the southern European tradition), and have access to a range of entertainment, from sporting events to poetry readings and gallery openings.

As is true of rural societies elsewhere, the Serbian countryside is a great repository of old customs, traditions, folklore, and belief. Anthropologists still travel there to gather stories of vampires and ghosts, while until the 1960s scholars collected long epic poems from the guslars, or folksingers, who preserved them through memorization. Many rural women still create elaborate traditional costumes that are worn during holidays and family celebrations.

In addition to Orthodox Christian holidays, Serbs celebrate secular holidays such as Labour Day (May 1) and Constitution Day (February 15). Belgrade hosts a range of cultural festivals, and Novi Sad is the site of a heavily attended agricultural fair held each May.

Even the most urbane Serbs enjoy traditional cuisine, and the Skadarlija district in the heart of Belgrade abounds in restaurants serving national dishes as well as foods from all over the world. Serbian cuisine reflects its Byzantine and Ottoman heritage and resembles that of Greece and Turkey in many respects. The national dish is ćevapčići, consisting of small rolled patties of mixed ground meats that are heavily seasoned and grilled. Other popular dishes include sarma (stuffed cabbage), podvarak (roast meat with sauerkraut), and moussaka (a casserole of minced meat, eggs, and potatoes). Food is usually accompanied by domestically produced wines and slivovitz (plum brandy).

The arts

Serbia’s peasant traditions continue to exert a substantial influence on the arts, and traditional handicrafts such as the making of opanci (leather sandals) are valued as links to the past. Moreover, a significant part of contemporary Serbian painting is based on traditions developed in Serbian church frescoes and icon painting. But while folk music remains popular, particularly in rural areas, the country’s vibrant culture is heavily influenced by trends from western Europe and North America. Western rock music, in particular, has a substantial following, and Serbian performers such as Fish Soup and Djordje Balaševic have used rock to make political statements. The modern Slavic music known as turbofolk, a fixture of cafés in Serbia’s larger cities, combines the electric instruments of rock with traditional folk rhythms. Among the republic’s most popular turbofolk singers is Svetlana Čeča. Clubs in Belgrade and other cities offer performances by musicians working in a variety of genres, including heavy metal, reggae, punk, hip-hop, and even country and western.

The best-known Serbian writer of the 20th century was undoubtedly Ivo Andrić, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961, mostly on the basis of his novel Na Drini čuprija (1945; The Bridge on the Drina, 1959). Dobrica Čosić, another prominent writer and nationalist, served as the federal government’s president in the 1990s. Among more-contemporary writers, novelists Vuk Drasković, Milorad Pavić, Vladimir Arsenijević, Mileta Prodanović, and Borislav Pekić have attracted considerable attention. Poetry has been a particularly honoured form of literary expression, rewarded in the past by handsome prizes and official positions; Desanka Maksimović, Oskar Davico, Jovan Ducić, and Vasko Popa are among the most highly regarded poets in the latter part of the 20th century.

Serbia also has a long theatrical tradition and many professional theatres. The Serbian National Theatre building in Belgrade dates from 1868. Serbian cinema is also well established. Before the outbreak of World War II, motion picture companies in Belgrade produced a dozen feature films. The most spectacular, Mihail Popović’s The Battle of Kosovo, was released in 1939. Filmmaking flourished in the post-World War II period; however, economic crisis and war in the 1990s greatly hindered production. (Indeed, the persistent and intensifying attempts of the government to control public communication during the 1990s damaged Serbian cultural life in general.) Serbian directors such as Dušan Makavejev have achieved international recognition; his Love Affair; or, The Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (1969) explored the political turbulence in Yugoslavia in the 1960s, and his Montenegro (1981), which he also cowrote, was made in Sweden (though it celebrates Yugoslavia). More recently, the films of director Emir Kusturica—who was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, but continues to work in Serbia and in Montenegro—have won several prestigious awards, including the Palme d’Or (best feature film) at the Cannes Festival in France for Underground (1995). His Black Cat, White Cat (1998) also earned many international honours, as did Goran Paskaljević’s The Powder Keg (1998). Belgrade hosts an annual film festival.

Cultural institutions

Although some fell into disrepair and neglect during the tumultuous 1990s, several fine museums and galleries are housed in Belgrade, among them the National Museum, the Gallery of Frescoes, the Ethnographic Museum, and the Palace of Princess Ljubice. Novi Sad is the site of the Vojvodina Museum, and its Petrovaradin Fortress contains several galleries and exhibit halls. The oldest and most significant cultural and scientific institution in Serbia is Matica Srpska. Founded in 1826 in the Hungarian city of Pest, it moved to Novi Sad in 1864. Matica Srpska’s journal, Letopis Matice Srpske, is one of the oldest cultural and scientific magazines in the world.

Sports and recreation

Recreational activities and sports are well developed throughout the republic, with hundreds of thousands of individuals registered as active participants in sports organizations. Hunting and fishing are particularly popular, as are basketball, gymnastics, martial arts, volleyball, water polo, and football (soccer). Serbia has produced a number of notable players who have competed for the top football clubs of Europe, and Crvena Zvezda Beograd ( Red Star Belgrade ) is one of the sport’s legendary teams.

Gymnastics has a long history in Serbia, dating back to the Sokol (“Falcon”) societies founded during the 19th century. Within communist Yugoslavia, physical culture was always taken seriously by the state, although the advanced system that developed athletes in other Eastern-bloc countries never took root. Support for sport was generally undertaken at the republic and municipal levels and also through the armed forces.

Serbia became a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1912, sending two participants that year to the Summer Olympic Games, and a Yugoslav team debuted at the 1920 Summer Games. Following reunification after World War II, enthusiastic support for the Olympic movement fit well with the communist government’s efforts to enhance the country’s international profile. Participation in international sporting events was seriously disrupted by sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Serbia has four national parks: Kopaonik and Tara in the southwestern mountains, Ðerdap adjacent to the Iron Gate gorge of the Danube, and Fruška Gora in the southwestern Vojvodina. Belgrade’s Ada Ciganlija, a park comprising an island in the Sava River, is a popular gathering place and is the site of bicycling and running events throughout the year.

Media and publishing

Hundreds of newspapers are published in Serbia, some of which are also published on the Internet. Politika, founded in 1904, is considered the most authoritative of the republic’s dailies. Among weekly magazines the most popular is Nedeljne Informativne Novine, better known as NIN. Semimonthly and monthly journals and other serials are published in the republic. Book publishing also is active, with thousands of titles appearing annually.

Serbia’s first television transmissions began in 1958 in Belgrade. Serbian television productions are noted for an original approach to the medium, though broadcasters and producers, especially those working for Radio Television Serbia (RTS), were subject to heavy state censorship until very recently. During the last years of the Milošević regime, B92, an independent television and radio studio, provided an important source of dissent and was the target of frequent government interference. There are television studios in Belgrade and Novi Sad. Additionally, there are several dozen radio stations.